Chris Hughes has spent his career working at the intersection of politics and technology. He was a co-founder of Facebook, a digital architect for President Obama’s campaign, and the publisher of the digital and print magazine The New Republic. He is the author of the book Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn, published by St Martin’s Press in February, 2018.

In 2016, he co-founded the Economic Security Project, a project utilizing a network of network of policymakers, academics, and technologists to explore how to provide financial security for all Americans through cash transfers. Chris Hughes believes that in a time of immense wealth, no one should live in poverty, nor should the middle class be consigned to a future of permanent stagnation or anxiety. Automation, globalization, and financialization are changing the nature of work, and these shifts require rethinking how to create economic opportunity for all.

Hughes also works on a range of progressive causes from his home in New York City. He is an investor and board member in several New York- and California-based start-ups, and he graduated from Harvard in 2006 magna cum laude with a degree in History and Literature.

The son of a public school teacher and traveling salesman, Chris Hughes grew up in a small town in North Carolina and got a scholarship to go to Harvard. In 2004 while there, he co-founded Facebook with his roommates Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz. He led communications and feature development in Facebook’s early years and played a role in the development of the early News Feed and sharing functionality that continue to power Facebook today. In 2007, Hughes joined Barack Obama’s digital organizing campaign for President and managed the campaign’s social network and army of digital volunteers. After Facebook’s IPO, he and his husband committed to giving away their wealth in their lifetimes, and today he focuses on growing the movement to combat income inequality through a guaranteed income. You can follow Chris on Facebook and Twitter.

In telling his story, Hughes demonstrates the powerful role fortune and luck play in today’s economy. Through the rocket ship rise of Facebook, Hughes came to understand how a select few can become ultra-wealthy nearly overnight. He believes the same forces that made Facebook possible have made it harder for everyone else in America to make ends meet.

Fair Shot: How to Rethink Inequality in the United States
In this talk, Chris Hughes speaks on the contents of his book, and about what can be done about the state of poverty in the U.S. He talks about the powerful role of fortune and luck play in today's economy and how that relates to the super-rich, and those on the other end of the spectrum.

"The American Dream is slipping away—too many people are working too hard and they’re still sinking, not even able to cover the basic costs of living. Fair Shot offers a new tool for economic mobility: a guaranteed income to all working people—even those whose work hasn’t been recognized or compensated with income before."
—Arianna Huffington

"If we are to be true to the principles of our nation’s founding, opportunity cannot be solely the province of the wealthy and well-connected. Yet the promise that if you work hard you can get ahead is broken for millions of Americans. As we strive to build a fairer, more inclusive country, Fair Shot is a very important read. These ideas must be part of the conversation as we consider how best to ensure the American Dream is available to all. This mission of securing the dream for all presents an urgency for every American; the strength and future of our nation depend on our success."
—Senator Cory Booker

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